BIKES, SIGHTS AND CAR-FREE STREETS

Sun shines as London’s cyclists take over the centre of the city for annual RideLondon and FreeCycle festival

LONDON’S ANNUAL festival of cycling, RideLondon, took place on Sunday 28 May, with tens of thousands of families yet again enjoying the freedom of traffic-free routes as part of the FreeCycle.

LCC’s fantastic volunteers helped many of those families ride into the centre of town from every borough in London, with help from great organisations like Joy Riders, Cycle Sisters and the Crisp Street Cycle Hub. A first for this year was participants from our NHS project running their own ride — rehab patients from Barts Health NHS Trust cycled in from east London to join in the fun.

The RideLondon sportive was originally a legacy event set up after the 2012 Olympics and this has since combined with pre-existing mass family rides to form a vast festival of cycling, open to everyone. While the roadies head out to Essex and wind around the lanes there, the FreeCycle event closes off much of central London to motor traffic, allowing bikes of every type to take over the city and bring a carnival atmosphere to the streets — it’s a truly unique experience. n Join Team LCC at lcc.org.uk/fundraising-events.

More than 25,000 amateur riders took on the sportive challenge this year, choosing from three distances: 30, 60 or 100 miles. Riding on roads that are closed to motor vehicles means you don’t need to keep stopping, making the long distance challenge far more enjoyable. As usual riders from Team LCC took on the 100-mile course to raise vital funds for LCC, which go towards helping us make London a truly world class cycling city. Resplendent in their specially-made Bioracer jerseys, our riders made it round the tough circuit in blazing sunshine. Riding a ‘century’ is a comparable effort to running a marathon and for many this was their longest ever ride.

RideLondon is an unmissable event on the London cycling calendar — if you’ve never ridden it before, let 2024 be your year.

FreeCycle family fun: the closed roads bring cyclists out in their tens of thousands

Save On Cycle Insurance With Yellow Jersey

We’re pleased to announce a new partnership with Yellow Jersey insurance which means all LCC members can now take advantage of 20% off theft and travel insurance policies, rising to 30% on renewal.

There are three tiers of Yellow Jersey bicycle insurance to choose from and the ‘Essentials’ policy is likely to be suitable for most people cycling in and around London, providing cover if the worst happens and your bike is stolen (bikes do, of course, need to be locked up and secured with an approved lock). For those riding in sportives or racing, or travelling outside of the UK, upgrading to the ‘Performance’ or ‘Ultimate’ packages may be worth considering too.

Yellow Jersey is also supporting this year’s Urban Hill Climb with dedicated cycle parking, meaning anyone coming to watch or take part can leave their cycles safe and secure while they enjoy the day.

You can find out more at lcc.org.uk/cycleinsurance.

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New Categories Announced For Next Urban Hill Climb

Urban Hill Climb takes place annually on Swain’s Lane, Highgate. It’s one of the few places in London where hill-climb specialists can really test their mettle and is the only London entry in author Simon Warren’s 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs n Entries for the 2023 event are now open. Book your place at lcc.org.uk/uhc.

Organised and run by the LCC — and supported this year by Osbornes Law and Yellow Jersey insurance — Urban Hill Climb is a wonderful spectacle. The road is closed and a tunnel of noise from spectators gathers to cheer cyclists up the challenging gradient.

This September, for the first time at a UK hill-climb event, e-bikes will be allowed, opening the door for more people than ever to take part and enjoy this festival of cycling. The event has always attracted the fastest racers who post astonishing times, sometimes under 90 seconds. But many more people attend for the atmosphere and watching the action unfold on a beautiful traffic-free street.

The course runs alongside the world-famous Highgate Cemetery, as well as Waterlow Park. The iconic high walls of the cemetery’s upper level make for the perfect backdrop at the toughest section of the climb — and help create that ‘wall of sound’ from the crowd.

Children, families, cargobikes, non-standard cycles, and bikes with pets on-board are all welcome and encouraged to sign up. The date to add to your calendar is 30 September, so we hope to see you there.